Dragon Shine (mural) Completion

The mural is now completed. The middle image is a detail of the mask itself. I have begun work on a second mural in my studio. Once the summer season is done along with all the vacations and such, we will have a "unveiling" and "show" of the murals being done in the home.

Expressive Series Pt 7

Expressive Follow-Up


This piece took a fairly short period of time to accomplish. Every thing I tried with this one worked! The color scheme came together right from the start and the effects worked for me the first time around. It is exciting when a piece flows this smoothly from beginning to end.  I really "get into" the piece and am worn out when it is has been finished. I love the particular shade of purples and blues I got with this. This has to be one of my favorites thus far in this series. I have 15 working titles for this series with this particular painting being number seven. This is a first for me. By this I mean that I have the titles first and paintings second. It is usually the other way around because the painting will tell me the title.


Thanks for viewing and comments and critiques are encouraged! Cheers!




(p.s. finished photos from the mural will come up in the next post. Thanks to my sister-in-law, Vicky, for letting me use her camera!!)

Dragon Shine (mural) Pt 3

"Rays" coming along, mural is almost finished at this stage.

Dragon Shine (mural) Pt 2

Continuing with the mural. As these pictures show, color has now been added. Each color has four "coats" painted and dried before moving on to the next darker color. Starting with yellow, and moving to orange.

Dragon Shine (mural)

With this post, I'll be taking a break from the "Expressive" Series for a while. I started a mural about two weeks ago and took pictures of the painting as it progressed along the wall.. So for the next few posts, I'll put those pictures up and talk about the mural.

The image is a mask design influenced by the Kabuki imagery that I was exposed to while I was stationed in Japan. I was fascinated by the Kabuki Theater, so much so that all of the mask designs I have done since show evidence of this influence.

On my website I have a gallery devoted to my masks designs. With a recent visit to Hawaii, the Tiki masks and totems have become an influence that I use in addition to the Kabuki.

The Expressive Series, Part 6

Expressive Etcetera

I had planned to take a break from this series and start with the first mural I am doing in my home. As per usual with my traditional acrylic paintings, changes to the "plan" have occurred and I'll be delaying the postings for the mural for at least another week. These changes have been positive and are a result of continued experimentation with the overall image as well as color ideas that "pop up" during the process. Stay tuned for the mural.

Now, on with this installment of the Expressive Series. How are the titles working thus far? Make sense? I find this a bit more fun and challenging than just going with a number sequence. I played a bit more with the effects on this one. Several attempts were needed to get what I was trying to picture in my mind. I like this piece, especially the green area. Green is a color that is very low on the totem pole as a color I like to work with. I can't really put my finger on why I don't like the color, but one must step outside the comfort zone. I have gotten better over the past few years in my refusal to use the color. I still like blue better and came very close to using blue instead of the green for this piece. After finishing the piece, I like the way the colors move and work within the piece. My eye is constantly moving over and around and through the piece.

Makes me want to try using green again...

...maybe.

Cheers!